Satellites are used in a variety of diverse fields such as for navigation, communication, environmental monitoring, weather forecasting, broadcasting and the like. Many homes, businesses, government organizations and other users may use satellites on a daily basis for entertainment, communication, information gathering and other purposes. Hundreds of man-made satellites now orbit the earth, and more are launched each year.
A typical modern satellite may include a metal or composite frame that carries one or more antennas, power sources such as solar cells and batteries, and various electronic components including modules of communications circuitry implemented by satellite payload transponders. These modules are numerous and may include telemetry and command modules, and modules of radio frequency (RF) communications circuitry including telemetry and command functionality that are respectively monitored and commanded by the telemetry modules and command modules. The telemetry and command modules are often connected to the modules of RF communications circuitry by wiring harnesses, and modules of RF communications circuitry are often interconnected by RF links.
The design and manufacture of a satellite often includes payload design, and a payload test program to validate and verify the payload design. Payload design currently includes calculation of integrated payload performance predictions based on unit design performance predictions. The nature of predictions forces payload engineers to design in conservatism to ensure actual end item performance. This conservatism has often forced the satellite to be larger than needed for power, size, weight, and unit redundancy—all of which are direct cost drivers to the overall program costs and affordability.
In order to define a payload test program, there needs to be a design. During proposal or even program baseline, the design is more conceptual with numerous assumptions on the design results. Because of the lack of design definition, the test program is based on assumptions that are not valid resulting in unidentified impacts to testability, test complexity, test scope, test software and Special Test Equipment (STE) capability. This is a direct source of recurring cost and schedule overruns on programs.
For payload test program validation, the only available satellite representation is the Dynamic Space Simulator (DSS), which is a program contractual deliverable and cannot be developed until the satellite design is complete. The DSS fidelity is focused on the satellite bus platform because the DSS purpose is for mission operations use. There is only rudimentary payload representation sufficient to determine if payload units are operational or not, nothing else. Therefore, any payload test procedure validation is limited by what is currently provided by the DSS, which is less than what is needed for spacecraft systems test.
Therefore it would be desirable to have a system and method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.